A brief-yet-ongoing journal of all things Carmi. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll reach for your mouse to click back to Google. But you'll be intrigued. And you'll feel compelled to return following your next bowl of oatmeal. With brown sugar. And milk.

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Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Marching in sequence

London's Harris Park is home to scads of Canada Geese. So pervasive are these beautiful - but potentially hissy-fit-pulling - birds that bikers familiar with the path that runs through this inspiring stretch of riverfront land know to slow down lest they wipe out on the droppings. Yes, it's gross. No, I haven't experienced it first-hand. But I have come close. I'll say no more.

I took this on my recent lunchtime walk to the park to observe the flooded river. On this gray day, a huge pack of birds alternated between lounging on the lawn and swimming in the fast-running brown water. I approached slowly so as not to startle them, but as you can see from this image, they were already on to me by the time I raised my camera and tripped the shutter.

I like the symmetry of this picture. I like the moment that it represents, when I was alone by the water on a miserable, melancholy day with a bunch of birds.

I guess that's what photography ultimately means to me: moments.

Your turn: What does photography mean to you? Why are frozen images in time so meaningful?

20 comments:

I'm not much of a photographer myself... but the part photography plays in my life is preserving precious memories... Things I swore I'd never forget from when my kids were little, I already have... For every picture i take, that's one more little memory that will never be lost or forgotten.

Oh definately moments. I've always been a photo-whore but once I had children it makes the importance of taking pictures just that much different.

Your post reminded me of the Kodak comercial that was running last year. The one with the slogan "Keep Me. Protect Me. Share Me.". I'd lose it everytime; watching that stupid comercial and I would start bawling.

My dad used to come to my school every year and take tons of pictures of us with our classmates. I remember looking forward to it. He'd get like 30 or so copies made and give each kid one. I was kind of hoping to follow suit, though the climate these days is regrettably colder.

"Why is the school allowing this man to come in and take pictures of the kids? I didn't sign a release!"

Photography does indeed capture moments. What's particulary interesting is that it speaks volumes more than video.

This is a great photo. Today must be a "photo" kind of day. I got lead to this site: http://torchsongstudio.blogspot.com/and saw a beautiful pic of a tree. That photo and yours, reminds me of how awesome nature can be. It's so unscripted and when you capture a moment like these, you feel like you've been given a gift. Great job. Should make a poster out of it.

Pictures are to our visual recollections as an old favorite song is to our auditory recollections as smells are to our olfactory recollections. It's all about memory associations, not necessarily good or bad.

Personally I can't remember what I did yesterday, so years of taking pictures (and writing information on the back of them when I get them from the developer) helps me recollect things that I'd probably have long forgotten. People's names, locations, dates. Information you really appreciate having 10 or 20 years down the road.

Digital - not so good for this, but you can file them in a similar way!

Well, because they are just that - frozen moments in time. As we age, we realize that we can't freeze time and so we look to photographs to remind us what our mind has forgotten. I know that I've started putting more framed snapshots out around my house - it's fun.

For me, photography is a chronocling of someone's life. It's a visual que to memory. It allows you to once again caress a loves one face, or remember the smell and sound of your baby, to see your parents as children and not just those old people you know.

After having my first child, I took photos of her obsessively. I wanted to capture every single nuance because with family so far away, I HAD to share what I saw every single day. I've calmed down a bit, thankfully (plus at the time, developing the film got sort of expensive), but it still shocks me how quickly time has gone by since my first child was born. All those photos I've taken of her (and of my next two children) are a great reminder to me that it's okay to slow down and make the most of each day. These kids, they grow up way too fast.

And I'm not too fond of geese even though they do look really neat from afar. I know all too well about those cursed droppings.

Moments is a good word. I tend to think of photographs as historial preservation. It will be hard to remember the details of a toddler face when looking at the adult that will one day stand before me. But at least my book full of photographs will help me remember.

ahh, this reminds me of Hawaii. I grew up on Maui and we occasionally took trips up the Haleakala (means House of the Sun in Hawaiian) volcano. The indigent Nene (pronounced Nay-nay) Goose (state bird of Hawaii)is a Canadian goose, which over time, evolved in accordance with its lava rock surroundings (no webbed feet).